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Brock’ s slinky saxophone. Notably, the
year’ s hit single“ Don’ t Eat the Yellow Snow” is bypassed.“ Penguin in Bondage,”“ Village of the Sun,”“ Son of Orange County,” and“ More Trouble Every Day” would soon appear in September 1974 on the celebrated live album Roxy & Elsewhere.“ Inca Roads” would lead the essential 1975 offering, One Size Fits All. Highlights of the performance include“ RDNZL” with Underwood’ s dazzling marimba passages.“ Dupree’ s Paradise” demonstrates Zappa’ s tight control as he throws solos to Murphy Brock on flute and Duke on sundry keyboards before joining the fray with his own frenzied guitar workout. Other delights include Nixon-era title track“ Uncle Meat,” amorous Mothers oldie“ Wowie Zowie,” and We’ re Only In It For The Money track“ Let’ s Make the Water Turn Black.”“ Montana,” with its POV tale of a wannabe dental floss rancher, is drawn from 1973’ s One Size Fits All, as is the raunchy yet sonically euphoric concert closer“ Camarillo Brillo.” This is a true gem for veteran Zappaphiles, and a fine overview of peakstrength Zappa for newcomers. The opportunity to see the composer / frontman interacting with his razor-sharp and intuitive
band is golden, not to mention his nonchalant breaking of the fourth wall while supervising the film and audio crews. The film also breaks away from the concert to visit Zappa’ s visual team, including cover artist Cal Schenkel( with his pet parrot and goat) and Baby Snakes animator Bruce Bickford.
Liner notes are included from Underwood and Zappa vaultmeister Joe Travers. Underwood writes that the band“ wasn’ t quite ready for its close-up, though FZ hoped it was.” The results are a literally and figuratively hot band performing to high expectations, going for broke, and typically succeeding. Zappa was an avowed fan of B-movies, and Cheaper than Cheep delivers low-budget fun and surprises as planned.
– Jeff Elbel
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18 illinoisentertainer. com september 2025